What is the difference between a flash flood and a flood?
A flash flood is sudden flooding that is caused by heavy, sustained rainfall on already saturated soil. Flash flooding can occur when an area receives heavy rainfall from slow moving thunderstorms or from a series of storms that move over the same ground (this is called training of echos). Hard ground, frozen ground and metropolitan areas (due to all the asphalt and concrete) are especially susceptible to this kind of flooding. A regular “flood”, on the other hand, is caused by overflowing rivers and other normal bodies of water. While the onslaught of flash flooding tends to be sudden, a regular river flood usually takes a good deal of time and often provides sufficient warning before damage begins to occur.
